Mr. Niall Curley:

There is also an EU right to private property that is enshrined in the European charter on human rights. I understand what the Deputy is asking but the Commission is proposing a law that member states will have to implement. How they do so is up to them. If the Government is infringing on a person's right to private property, that is an issue for the Government, not for the Commission. How this is fulfilled is very much up to the member state. If it comes down to compulsory purchase orders to buy land to create a certain number of national parks or to force the rewetting of certain areas, that will be for the member state to deal with within its own legal systems. Once this is enacted, member states will have the ability to implement it because it will be enacted into law automatically and they will have a legal obligation to fulfil it. If they do not fulfil it, they will be sued.